Enjoy an interview with MAMSE (Michigan Association of Middle School Educators) President Teresa Sutherland. We are pretty pleased with the sound quality. Mostly though, we are pleased with the quality of Teresa’s answers. Look for an interview with Mr. Jeff LaRoux coming soon.
If Microsoft Ran The IRS
“Government should be run like a business.” We’ve all heard that chestnut. Here is how the Internal Revenue Service (nobody’s favorite government agency) would be like, if only it were run like Microsoft Corp. (a successful private enterprise).
— The IRS, as always, announces new tax forms will be mailed the week before the new year. However it will follow Microsoft’s example and actually ship them the following May.
— Responding to pressure from some large corporations and a users’ group, some early copies of the tax forms will actually be released in March. The recipients must sign non-disclosure agreements.
— In June, the forms will be recalled because the IRS loses a suit for appropriating some other country’s intellectual property.
— When you move, the IRS will continue to send mail to your previous address forevermore, just like Microsoft sends its product upgrade notices.
— When you upgrade from form 1040 EZ to 1040 A, and then to 1040, you will pay an upgrade fee each time. Also you need to send in a new registration card and get a new Social Security Number. In order to upgrade, you have to submit the original first page of your previous year’s form.
— Like Microsoft, when you file a late or amended tax return the IRS will reject it on the grounds that the the prior year is no longer supported.
— The IRS telephone help will remain similar to Microsoft’s, staffed by ill-trained, high-turnover personnel who sometimes give a correct answer, but the IRS will have to discontinue using a toll-free phone number.
— After struggling with reams of dense documentation of complex options and rules, you discover that you will need publication 3297, with a ten-word-long title, in order to answer (you hope) a single obscure question. The IRS, like Microsoft, will charge a minimum of $40 for that publication.
— The IRS, like Microsoft, will continue to issue immense volumes of bug fixes, interpretations, and clarifications. However the tax-rule updates should be neither easily searchable nor well-indexed.
— Instead of three-ring binders containing complete sets of tax code bugs and interpretations, IRS rulings will be promulgated in a haphazard fashion by individual taxpayers via BBS, Usenet, and Compuserve. A for- profit publishing subsidiary would also be nice.
— The new all-powerful (and eccentric) Commissioner of Internal Revenue will jet around the country giving speeches and granting numerous interviews, but only to sycophantic reporters. Changes to the tax code will be at the whim of the Commissioner and largely kept secret until they are published.
Traverse City Special Education Visual Guide
For Michigan Educators:
http://mel.org/SPT–BrowseResourcesNewMeL.php
Jeff LaRoux & Teresa Sutherland: Thanks for the Interview!
Kevin Galbraith: Thanks for the mention in your session on Podcasting at MI Champs!
From the Twitterverse:
By LINDSAY KASTNER SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS
Texas has always been known for its independent streak.
Now the state is one of four that is sitting out an effort to create voluntary national standards for what students are expected to learn in school.
Forty-six states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands are on board with the project, which is spearheaded by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers.
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is a backer. Sunday he sweetened his support with $350 million in federal stimulus money to be used for the creation of national tests.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6491086.html
The Opportunity Equation. Transforming Mathematics and Science Education for Citizenship and the Global Economy
The United States must mobilize for excellence in mathematics and science education so that all students— not just a select few, or those fortunate enough to attend certain schools—achieve much higher levels of math and science learning. Over the coming decades, today’s young people will depend on the skills and knowledge developed from learning math and science to analyze problems, imagine solutions, and bring productive new ideas into being.
Knowledge and skills from science, technology, engineering, and mathematics—the so-called STEM fields—are crucial to virtually every endeavor of individual and community life.
Calendar of Events:
http://www.opportunityequation.org/report/executive-summary/
Teacher Questions & Answers:
Are you in the top half of your class?
No, I’m one of the students who make the top half possible!
The picture of the horse is good, but where is the wagon?
The horse will draw it!
Why are you picking your nose in class?
My mother won’t let me do it at home!
Why are you reading the last pages of your history book first?
I want to know how it ends!
What can we do to stop polluting our waters?
Stop taking baths?
Can’t you retain anything in your head overnight?
Of course, I’ve had this cold in my head for two days!
From the Twitterverse:
Marzano & Smartboards:
http://www.edutopia.org/interactive-whiteboards-technology-success
Students in grades 3 through 5 will switch classes |South Florida Sun Sentinel6:54 PM EDT, June 8, 2009
Parents at A-rated Boca Raton area elementary schools are raising the threat level over a mandatory plan to drop the traditional one-teacher model in grades 3 through 5. The plan is called departmentalization, in which students have different teachers for reading/language arts, math, science and social studies, similar to middle school. Principals are free to use this model for first and second grades and even kindergarten. Students who are eligible for gifted classes will continue to receive the same amount of specialized instruction, Hernandez said. At the Del Prado meeting, parents asked for research or some proof that student performance improves under departmentalization. Some parents also opposed the change on the grounds that their schools are already performing at high levels and should stay the course.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/palmbeach/sfl-palm-elementary-classes-p060809,0,4191006.story
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/07/opinion/07kristof.html?_r=1&em
Instead of telling kids to avoid bad behavior, “Positive Action” sets out a framework
A new study shows that fifth-graders in Hawaii who took part in a schoolwide behavioral program called “Positive Action” were about half as likely to try drugs, alcohol, weapons or sex as their peers in other schools. Unlike programs that focus simply on avoiding risky behaviors, Positive Action gives students a comprehensive framework to guide their behavior, with daily 15-minute interactive lessons. Ala Wai Elementary Principal Charlotte Unni said yesterday that initially she was reluctant to try the program, but now is a convert. Positive Action, a kindergarten-to-12th-grade curriculum, was created more than two decades ago, but this was the first randomized, scientific trial of its efficacy, according to Brian Flay, principal investigator in the study. Those results contrast with studies of DARE, the most widely implemented program on preventing drug abuse in the country, which takes place in fifth or sixth grades. In 2001, the U.S. Surgeon General concluded that DARE does not deter substance abuse. The program costs about $300 to $400 per classroom up front, plus 10 to 15 percent of that per year, Flay said. “It’s very cost-effective, because the costs to society of a kid who becomes a drug user or engages in violence are very high,” he said.
http://www.starbulletin.com/news/20090619_Guidance_program_promising.html
One-fourth of teens’ cellphone text messages are sent during class, a new survey finds, despite widespread classroom bans on cellphones at school. The survey of 1,013 teens — 84% of whom have cellphones — also shows that a significant number have stored information on a cellphone to look at during a test or have texted friends about answers.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-06-17-cellphones-in-class_N.htm
Sixth graders at Cloonan Middle School here are assigned numbers based on their previous year’s standardized test scores — zeros indicate the highest performers, ones the middle, twos the lowest — that determine their academic classes for the next three years. So in an unusual experiment, Cloonan mixed up its sixth-grade science and social studies classes last month, combining zeros and ones with twos. These mixed-ability classes have reported fewer behavior problems and better grades for struggling students, but have also drawn complaints of boredom from some high-performing students who say they are not learning as much. Educators have debated for decades how to best divide students into classes. Some school districts focus on providing extra instruction to low achievers or developing so-called gifted programs for the brightest students, but few maintain tracking like Stamford’s middle schools (tracking is less comprehensive and rigid at the town’s elementary and high schools). David Rudolph, Cloonan’s principal, said that parents have long complained that the tracking numbers assigned to students dictate not only their classes but also their friends and cafeteria cliques.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/15/education/15stamford.html?_r=1
Calendar of Events:
Advisory! Advisory! Advisory!
Tinker Toys…create exact same structure while seated back to back
Machines…place name of machines on index cards, distribute to groups, have them act them out
From the Twitterverse:
* russeltarr PhotoPeach: Create movies from photos (simpler than Animoto – for younger students?): http://tinyurl.com/mn3zqm
* vtdeacon Two of my students made this animoto of stuff we did this school year. Check it!: http://animoto.com/play/fKS…
* russeltarr New iPhone App Lets You Write in Thin Air: http://tinyurl.com/lvkxcu
* Educator Doing it wrong. “Teachers banned from Twitter after principal constantly criticises students” (Telegraph) http://ow.ly/dN9f
* michelledoddRT @kjarrett: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive « http://bit.ly/10ESlj
Shout Outs:
Ric Wiltse, Executive Director-Michigan Association for Computer Users in Learning- for accepting Troy’s proposal for Shawn to present.
3:30 – 4:30pm
Professional Learning Networks
Shawn McGirr, Troy Patterson
Content: M/SC/SS
Level: GENERAL
Room: W104
“Networking is a basic tenet of education. Come and learn how you can create your own Personal Learning Network. Learn which tools you can use to develop a network that meets YOUR needs. Learn the continuum of professional learning network development. Learn how to use podcasts, wikis, social networking (facebook, et. al.), social bookmarking (delicious, et. al), webinars, blogs, microblogs (Twitter), and more. This stuff isn’t just for your students anymore.”
News:
Schwarzenegger: Printed texts are old school
Analysis: As a budget-cutting strategy, California’s digital textbook initiative could have national implications
In the state that gave the world Facebook, Google, and the iPod, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says forcing California’s students to rely on printed textbooks is so yesterday. The governor recently launched an initiative to see if the state’s 6 million public school students could use more online learning materials, including open courseware–perhaps saving millions of dollars a year in textbook purchases. The governor is starting with math and sciences and has asked providers to submit their online postings to state officials by next week. The materials that survive state review will be made available to school districts by Aug. 10. “We expect the first science and math books to be digital by this fall,” Schwarzenegger said. “If we expand this to more textbooks, schools could save hundreds of millions of dollars a year, and that’s hundreds of millions of dollars that could be used to hire more teachers and to reduce class sizes.”
http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/index.cfm?i=59180
Events & Happenings:
Calendar of Events:
1. The National Middle School Association is looking for an editor for their Research in Middle Level Education Journal (RMLE).
2. NMSA’s Annual Conference: NMSA ‘08 Technology Focus Video. NMSA ‘09 Invitation Video: Indianapolis, IN Conference November 5-7, 2009. Individual Registration is now open.
3. ATTENTION Michigan Association of Middle School Educators & Friends: MAMSE is putting together a bus for the trip to the National Middle School Association’s Annual Conference in Indianapolis, IN this fall. Ride down to the conference in a luxury bus. With all the conversations with middle school teachers on the bus, I wonder if we could call this a mini-MAMSE conference? There’s nothing like getting together with people who love the people we love: our students. Getting together with folks like that is energizing and priceless. Email Teresa Sutherland for information and details. Don’t forget to mention you heard about it on Middle School Matters.
4. NMSA 09 Conference Connection: Stay connected before, during, and after the conference! Start your packing lists for the conference using packwhiz.com!
5. Keynote speakers for NMSA ’09 have been announced: Daniel Pink (political connections) opens and Rick Wormeli closes.
6. NMSA has a new publication on the role of middle grades in drop-out prevention. You can download it as a pdf file.
7. Schools to Watch Conference June 25-27, Washington D.C. Conference registration info.
8. Educational Technology Leadership Conference, June 24th at Holt High School, Holt, MI. Register for the event.
9. ISTE Eduverse Talks are the recorded sessions held on ISTE Island every week. Join ISTE in their Second Life conference location for their weekly talks on education.
10. The Michigan Association of Middle School Educators Annual Conference is coming up March 4-5, 2010 in Dexter, MI. MAMSE will be celebrating its 40th Anniversary!
11. Classroom 2.0’s Live Calendar.
12. Classroom 2.0’s Ning Blog: This week’s discussion is on “Images 4 Education” for Teachers. Archived content is available.
13. Second Life:
* No Events specified. Regular Tuesday meetings are scheduled. See the board on the ISTE Island for up to the minute details.
* Video: Educational Uses of Second Life
It had been snowing for hours when an announcement came over the intercom: “Will the students who are parked on University Drive please move their cars so that we may begin plowing.” Twenty minutes later there was another announcement: “Will the nine hundred students who went to move fourteen cars return to class.”
A teacher was giving a lesson on the circulation of the blood. Trying to make the matter clearer, he said: “Now, students, if I stood on my head the blood, as you know, would run into it, and I should turn red in the face.”
“Yes, sir,” the boys said.
“Then why is it that while I am standing upright in the ordinary position the blood doesn’t run into my feet?”
A little fellow shouted, “‘It’s because yer feet ain’t empty.”
Advisory! Advisory! Advisory!
Spread the Word to Stop the Word: Special Olympics is campaigning to get the r-word out of student’s vocabulary. They can take the pledge to not use the word on their website.
* russeltarr Convert text to a mindmap: http://tinyurl.com/n8nsax
* barbs1 Just found. My story maker. Looks like fun http://tinyurl.com/plhpbp
* russeltarr EdHeads: Great animations/activities for biology lessons (RT @pwhyte): http://tinyurl.com/qdep4a
* russeltarr Fantastic Contraption Game – any use in physics lessons?: http://tinyurl.com/rabl8f (Warning: Can be memory intensive. And addictive . . . 🙂 )
* kchichester Charter schools hires 8 teachers at $125,000 a year http://bit.ly/97jnl My question is how can they afford to expand? Also, little/no tech?
* Griffbuddy RT @shareski: If you ever need an article to send to someone to explain/justify twitter, this might be the one. http://tinyurl.com/pr9qg5
* SimpleK12 Web 2.0 for low-income @ minority students: http://tinyurl.com/aljhy8
* funnelbrain Student generated video flashcards for Environmental Science on FunnelBrain – http://bit.ly/KBxG1 – A cool way to collaborate.
* cindybrock I HATE when I cry over Accelerated Reader. Really hoping Tech Support can help me copy classes from last year & not have to do it all by hand
* AngelaMaiers 11 yr old difference maker – http://twentyfivedays.wordp…
*
Griffbuddy Recommended @MSMatters to @MrTweet ‘ They produce a great weekly podcast for middle school educators.’ http://cli.gs/uQSDgP
Girls can do just as well at math as boys — even at the genius level — if they are given the same opportunities and encouragement, researchers reported on Monday. Their study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, contradicts studies showing girls can do as well as boys on average in math — but cannot excel in the way males can. “We conclude that gender inequality, not lack of innate ability or ‘intrinsic aptitude’ But at the top levels, disparities persist and some experts have said this is do to the “greater male variability” theory — the idea that males in general are more likely to score both extremely high and extremely poorly on tests than girls are.
http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2009/06/01/girls_worse_at_math_no_way_new_analysis_shows/?rss_id=Boston.com+–+Education+news
Robert Balfanz
Everyone Graduates Center and Talent Development Middle Grades Program
http://www.nmsa.org/portals/0/pdf/research/Research_from_the_Field/Policy_Brief_Balfanz.pdf
Calendar of Events:
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
A school teacher injured his back and had to wear a plaster cast around the upper part of his body. He wore it under his shirt and it was not noticeable at all. On the first day of the term, still with the cast under his shirt, he found himself assigned to the toughest class in the school. Walking confidently into the rowdy classroom, he opened the window as wide as possible and then busied himself with desk work. The classroom became a bit unruly and he admonished them. This happened several times. While working at his desk, the strong breeze from the window made his tie flap annoyingly. He kept rearranging and rearranging the tie as the class become more and more unmanageable. Finally, becoming disgusted with the wayward tie, he stood up and took a big stapler off his desk and stapled the tie to his chest in several places. Discipline was not a problem from that day forth.
Advisory! Advisory! Advisory!
A New Zealand man fled with his girlfriend after receiving millions of dollars in a banking error.
http://jeffreyhill.typepad.com/english/2009/05/its-not-often-that-new-zealand-gets-a-mention-on-the-english-blog-but-heres-a-story-from-the-times-which-would-make-a-good-s.html
From the Twitterverse:
* AngelaMaiers RT@cristama…this year has transformed me (and my teaching) in so many ways. (I feel the same- so much I owe to PLN!)
* shareski Kramer on Openness and Transparency. @courosa you should use this in a presentation http://bit.ly/lV1Bo
* AngelaMaiers RT @Zweibz7 @problogger: if there’s one lesson I’ve learned this week it is – ‘build your network before you need it’.
* paulallison Looking for stories about resilient students in your classroom: First a request, then an invitation. (If you’ve .. http://tinyurl.com/nmvh8f
* AngelaMaiers RT @education_com @BNBuzz – giving free book 2 kids who complete summer reading program http://bit.ly/bU2pj
Shout Outs:
Thanks to our Robert Jackson in Kiev for the link to the Aspire One as Kindle.
News:
Report: Costly plan failed to improve schools
A $100 million investment in Miami-Dade County’s lowest performing public schools failed to boost student achievement, according to the school district’s final report on the program. The School Improvement Zone was a three-year push at 39 elementary, middle and senior high schools throughout the county. Students participated in a specialized reading program and had a longer school day than students at other schools. They also had a longer school year. ”The zone program exhibited at best an inconsistent impact that was limited to the elementary grades,” program evaluators wrote. The report also noted that the extended school year — starting a week early and tacking extra days onto the end — was ineffective.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/story/1049341.html
New CEO: Gates Foundation learns from experiments
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation spent billions of dollars exploring the idea that smaller high schools might result in higher graduation rates and better test scores. Instead, it found that the key to better education is not necessarily smaller schools but more effective teachers.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gBfu1Zu7aIsLeH_NGiMaHbc4AEnQD98F58R80
Senate bill supports 21st-century skills
Shelley Pasnik, director of the Education Development Center’s Center for Children and Technology, said she is pleased to see the bill addresses more than simply putting more technology into schools. “Students need to go beyond just learning today’s academic context to develop critical thinking and problem solving skills, communications skills, creativity and innovation skills, collaboration skills, contextual learning skills, and information and media literacy skills,” the bill reads.
http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/index.cfm?i=58949
School counselors face big workload in Illinois
Bartlett High School counselor Stephanie Fullhart has been keeping track of nearly 340 students this year, an overwhelming caseload in the eyes of many counselors. Of the 10 states with the largest school populations, Illinois’s ratio was second only to California, which had 966 students per counselor in 2006-07. The ratios are calculated by dividing a state’s prekindergarten-to-Grade 12 enrollment by the number of guidance counselors reported to the federal government. There is little public pressure to add counselors. Parents usually pay more attention to the number of students per teacher. “We need to start getting the word out about who professional school counselors are, so administrators see them as pivotal in making school change,” said Christina Nolan, president of the Illinois School Counselor Association and an assistant professor at National-Louis University.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chi-counselors-west-zone-27-may27,0,3192041.story
Human anatomy for everyone!
You don’t have to leave home to take an interesting class. You don’t even have to pay. By Linda K. Wertheimer
Not all higher education costs a pretty penny. You can peek into some college classrooms around the world, experience lectures in text, audio, or video at any time, and, in some cases, take the final, all without leaving home — and all for free.
http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2009/05/31/human_anatomy_for_everyone/
Teaching Ideas:
Using Google Docs Spreadsheet for Education:
1. Flash Cards
2. Word Study
3. Word Search
http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2009/05/spotlight-on-developers-educational.html
Twenty Interesting Ways* to use Google Docs in the Classroom(*and Tips)
http://docs.google.com/Present?docid=dhn2vcv5_8323t58h3ft
1. The National Middle School Association is looking for an editor for their Research in Middle Level Education Journal (RMLE).
2. NMSA’s Annual Conference: NMSA ‘08 Technology Focus Video. NMSA ‘09 Invitation Video: Indianapolis, IN Conference November 5-7, 2009. Individual Registration is now open.
3. ATTENTION Michigan Association of Middle School Educators & Friends: MAMSE is putting together a bus for the trip to the National Middle School Association’s Annual Conference in Indianapolis, IN this fall. Ride down to the conference in a luxury bus. With all the conversations with middle school teachers on the bus, I wonder if we could call this a mini-MAMSE conference? There’s nothing like getting together with people who love the people we love: our students. Getting together with folks like that is energizing and priceless. Email Teresa Sutherland for information and details. Don’t forget to mention you heard about it on Middle School Matters.
4. NMSA 09 Conference Connection: Stay connected before, during, and after the conference! Start your packing lists for the conference using packwhiz.com!
5. Keynote speakers for NMSA ’09 have been announced: Daniel Pink (political connections) opens and Rick Wormeli closes.
6. NMSA has a new publication on the role of middle grades in drop-out prevention. You can download it as a pdf file.
7. Schools to Watch Conference June 25-27, Washington D.C. Conference registration info.
8. Educational Technology Leadership Conference, June 24th at Holt High School, Holt, MI. Register for the event.
9. ISTE Eduverse Talks are the recorded sessions held on ISTE Island every week. Join ISTE in their Second Life conference location for their weekly talks on education.
10. The Michigan Association of Middle School Educators Annual Conference is coming up March 4-5, 2010 in Dexter, MI. MAMSE will be celebrating its 40th Anniversary!
11. Classroom 2.0’s Live Calendar.
12. Classroom 2.0’s Ning Blog: This week’s discussion is on “Student Web Radio Broadcasts” for Teachers. Archived content is available.
13. Second Life:
* No Events specified. Regular Tuesday meetings are scheduled. See the board on the ISTE Island for up to the minute details.
* Video: Educational Uses of Second Life
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Advisory! Advisory! Advisory!
From the Twitterverse:
Shout Outs:
http://etymonline.com/ Dean Shareski’s blog.
http://www.monteselby.com/
Nationwide, students in the middle grades and high school are failing to develop the
reading and writing skills they need in order to meet higher academic standards later
in their educational careers.
While most of the 16 Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) states have seen
recent gains in reading achievement in the early grades, the same cannot be said
of achievement in the middle grades and high school. There is also evidence that
students who struggle to meet academic standards in subjects such as science and
mathematics have poor reading skills.
The good news is clear: We now know how to solve this problem.
Too many students begin to fall behind in reading after they leave the early grades.
By ninth grade, many struggling readers are destined to become high school
dropouts. By college, one in four freshmen must take remedial reading classes —
and few of these students finish a degree.
Students who leave eighth grade with weak reading skills quickly fall behind in
high school. More students in SREB states repeat ninth grade than any other grade,
swelling ninth-grade enrollment by 14 percent in the SREB median states in 2005.
Students who falter in ninth grade are likely to become high school dropouts.
Although formal reading instruction stops after the early grades for most public
school students, many researchers and educators now realize that it should continue
through high school. Reading skills do not advance automatically, even for students
who read at grade level when they begin the middle grades. While most students
continue to develop speaking skills naturally, they do not develop advanced reading
skills on their own — particularly the ones they need for success in high school and
college.
“Most [teachers] devote little, if any, class time to showing students, explicitly, what
it means to be a good reader or writer in the given subject area. And most students
engage in very little discussion of what they have read,” according to a 2007 Alliance
for Excellent Education report.
Across the country, states have an obligation to take immediate action to improve
students’ reading and writing skills. Accordingly, the Committee recommends that
each state set policies that will lead to improved practices at the state, district and
school levels. These policies should call for each state to:
http://www.sreb.org/publications/2009/09E01_Critical_Mission_Reading_.pdf
A federal study intended to provide insight on the effectiveness of programs for reading comprehension has found that three such programs had no positive impact, while a fourth had a negative effect on student achievement.
In other words, the conclusion is that none of the four programs studied—Project CRISS, ReadAbout, Read for Real, and Reading for Knowledge—is effective.
They concluded that Project CRISS, developed by Creating Independence Through Student-Owned Strategies; Read About, produced by Scholastic Inc.; and Read for Real, created by Chapman University and Zaner-Bloser, had no effect on reading comprehension. In addition, they found that Reading for Knowledge, created by the Success for All Foundation, had a negative impact on the composite test scores and the science-comprehension test scores for students using that curriculum.
http://www.mathematica-mpr.com/publications/pdfs/education/selectsupplreading.pdf
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Shout Outs:
We’re at 10 comments, we are throwing down the gauntlet to make it to 15 comments.
From: Jenny McAvoy-Anteau:
(Lots & Lots of information, here’s just a snippet):
Western Michigan University (WMU)_ researchers have discovered no significant advantage to teaching students through experimenting instead of teaching them through direct instruction.
www.physorg.com/news153990337.html (the summary includes this — “The data, while marginally favoring inquiry, really show that as long as the instruction is good either way, the two approaches (inquiry vs direct instruction) lead to no significant difference- at least as far as science content understanding is concerned” William Cobern of WMU’s Mallinson Institute for Science Education).
Ideas for Middle School Science.
http://fc.dc-grimes.k12.ia.us/~gklocke/Class%20notes – Eighth-grade science teacher Gary Klocke shares his teaching materials, including lesson plans, templates for class notes, review and practice sheets, and PowerPoint presentations at the above link.
Students have been given cell phones loaded with educational software as part of a project at Trinity Meadow Intermediate School in Keller, Texas.
www.ur.umich.edu/0809/Feb16_09/04.php (in story — “5th graders recieved phones containing “Mobile Learning Environment” software developed by University of Michigan scientist Elliot Soloway and Cathleen Norris, a regents professor at the University of North Texas. The software turns the phones into computers that can do almost everything a laptop can for a fraction of the price claims Soloway. Students use the phones to map concepts, animate drawings, surf “relevant” sites on the internet and integrate material into their lessons. The phones also have mini versions of Microsoft Word and Excel. The school district will examine whether listening to recordings of texts enhances at-risk student’s reading comprehension and will assess student’s technological savvy before and after the project.)
Press Kit for promoting the National Middle School Association’s Annual Conference. http://www.nmsa.org/annual/AbouttheConference/PromotionalTools/tabid/1882/Default.aspx
Edublogs Live : Video recorded Elluminate education discussion events. Sue Waters, an Australian educator, hosts these discussions.
Fancy Talking Blocks: http://siftables.com/
NMSA’s Al Summers is posting his own blog about the NMSA 2009 Annual Conference in the run up to the big event. This from that blog: “NMSA is currently looking for “tech savvy teachers” to feature. We would like to highlight especially those who are doing project-based learning with a community and/or global impact. If you know of any teachers doing cutting edge work like this through technology, please e-mail me information—PLEASE DON’T POST IT ON THE BLOG. My e-mail is asummers@nmsa.org”
NASA is Twittering from Space to increase its face time with readers & taxpayers here on Earth.
Obama Administration is cutting the Educational Technology budget by 63%. The money budgeted goes from $163 million dollars to $100 million dollars. I’m not sure I could even wrap my head around spending $100 million dollars just by myself.
Make A Video For Mom: It is what it is. Enjoy. 🙂
Get your Cursive Handwriting App from the iTunes Store! Learn Cursive Today!
Future of Education (.com) Michael Horn of Distrupting Class will be on their podcast coming up.
Comic: www.xkcd.com
Books We’re Reading (or going to):
By Cossondra George
When we become adults, life itself is coercive by nature. Most everything we do, we do with some amount of coercion present, in one form or another.
My curriculum is coercive. But while I often complain that the guidelines set forth by the state limit what I can and must teach students, I also know that – in the larger scheme – without those grade-level content expectations, students would be left to the whims of individual teachers as to what they are taught in school.
However, I think it’s unreasonable to hope for unfettered freedom in our current K-12 public education system.
It seems only fair to my students that I keep my classroom coercive. I want kids to leave the learning environment we’ve shared for a year knowing a lot more about math than when they arrived. I want to be satisfied that we have maximized our time together. I want them to learn, to grow, and to leave wanting to learn and grow even more—carrying with them the core math skills they’ll need in the grades and years to come.
If that takes a little arm twisting on my part, then so be it.
http://www.teachermagazine.org/tm/articles/2009/05/06/050609tln_george.h21.html?r=881287244
The school board decided to remove speech and debate from the course schedule; there was no argument.
The best part of going back to school is seeing all your friends. The worst part is that your teachers won’t let you talk to them.
School is where you always try to do your best-except when your friends are watching.
Teacher: I told you to stand at the end of the line ?
Pupil: I tried, but there was someone already there !
Walking through the hallways at the middle school where I work, I saw a new substitute teacher standing outside his classroom with his forehead against a locker. I heard him mutter, “How did you get yourself into this?” Knowing that he was assigned to a difficult class, I tried to offer moral support. “Are you okay?” I asked. “Can I help?” He lifted his head and replied, “I’ll be fine as soon as I get this kid out of his locker.”
One morning I was called to pick up my son at the school nurse’s office. When I walked through the main entrance, I noticed a woman, curlers in her hair, wearing pajamas. “Why are you dressed like that?” I asked her. “I told my son,” she explained, “that if he ever did anything to embarrass me, I would embarrass him back. He was caught cutting school. So now I’ve come to spend the day with him!”
We’re at 8, we are throwing down the gauntlet to make it to 10.
Gents,
Again, I can’t tell you how much I enjoy your show. Once a week, I get up early with the birds, make a cup of coffee and listen to your podcast in silent reverence. Actually, scratch that. I get up with my two little ones, plug in my headphones as I run around trying to get ready for the day…but your show does have a Zen quality that calms me down and gives me confidence to face the day with my MS students.
I do have a question…next year, I am implementing a 1:1 notebook program with our middle school students. What resources would you recommend as I start staff training in using moodle and notebooks in the classroom? I know this is a huge question…but to whom else can I turn in my time of need?
Thanks guys and keep up the good work.
Robert Jackson
Kyiv International School
We also discussed New Tech High School.
The Detroit Historical Society is presenting A Guide To Being A Modern Day Adventurer on Saturday May 30, 2009. Some of the modern tools cited include flashlights, iPhones, and GPS devices. They are opening up their archives for one night only. Guests get a reception in the transportation storage facility and a guided tour through the archives. Items from Native American artifacts to Motown outfits will be on display. Tickets must be purchased by Friday May 23, 2009 by calling (313) 833-7938 or on the website at www.detroithistorical.org. This isn’t a field trip opportunity for your students, most likely. It might be a good field trip for teachers who could then pull some of these resources into their classroom from the experience.